Space Hulk

The deep scanning naval auspexes on the orbiting “Emperors Will”, the “Imperial Holocaust and the “Xenos Extermination” suggested that the Hulk contained as many as two hundred ships. Many were clearly of alien origin and bizarrely shaped. A dozen of the more recently attached around the periphery of the Hulk were clearly Ork in origin with their aggressively crude and makeshift but functional construction and appearance. The drives in these ships were burnt out. Across the Hulk as a whole energy sources indicated a least thirty warp plasma drives with the same number of alien drives using different principals from the Imperium to develop Warp power. Some ships were vacuum welded to each other but many showed evidence of sentient actions in their location and attachment to the Hulk. Deep scans showed corridors running in a regular grid in some parts of the Hulk, directly through separate ships that had been welded together while in other areas the there seemed to be no pattern to the corridors and in others thay ran in curves and spirals. The central agglomeration of the Hulk contained the oldest ships. The density of Xenos ships was highest in the center suggesting that one or more Xenos species had been responsible for initiating the creation of the Hulk. The oldest Imperial ships were of ancient patterns both civilian and naval. These were clustered around the core with the age of the incorporated ships decreasing the closer to the outer surface they were located although this was not an absolute rule as some old Imperial ships could be identified vacuum welded to the outer parts of the Hulk’s pack of ships.

The outer surface of the Hulk was scarred. There were blast craters including the one recently created by the Ork infestation. There were lasers scars and evidence of torpedo and other projectile weapon hits. There were weapons bulges and warped organic looking towers of unknown function dotted across the surface. Simple crude Ork style cabling and piping ran alongside advanced Xenos and sophisticated Imperial ducting and piping linking point to point on the skin of the Hulk. There were orifices for engine exhausts and given its age there were craters that could only have been form meteor impacts. There was evidence of patching some of the damaged areas indicating that some of the previous inhabitants had existed in the Hulk for some time,

“There in the outer shell of the core is our target,” stated Hawk. “The design of the ships indicates that these Imperial Naval Cruisers are at least three thousand years old. There is a strong possibility that we will be able to salvage archeotechnology that wil be invaluable to the Imperium.”
“How will we get there, Lord?” asked Captain Meddigo of the Red Hunters.

Progressive

The skeletal remains of the gargantuan predator had the mummified remains of a naked Ork stuffed in its jaws.
“This makes no sense”, muttered Hammerhand.
“When the impossible is eliminated, whatever remains is the truth,focus on that", remarked Hawk casually.
“Captain Pilgrim, I need a review of all ships types that the fleet scanners have identified as part of this Hulk agglomerate. I also need the likely age of all known vessels and any specific identifications available from the Imperial Navy data sets”, ordered the Inquisitor.
Inquisitor Hawk was patient, cunning, secretive and remarkably intelligent as a result his chosen augmentations. If some of his orthodox puritan colleagues and associates in the Inquisition had the slightest idea of what Hawk had done inside his head he would have been declared Abominus Imperialis without hesitation particularly by the Ordo Hereticus.
“This conference is adjourned until Captain Pilgrim’s savants extract the necessary data from the imperial archives.”
Hawk left followed by his bodyguard and savant.
“What are our orders, Chaplain Arsestus?” called Sergeant Mudmilk.
Hammerhand stood even so the Red Hunters Chaplain’s bulk dominated the room. “Advance to the next bulkhead. Take samples of the beast and Ork”, ordered Hammerhand. The Chaplain stirred. Hammerhand waited for the Chaplain.

Lots of Teeth

It had had a lot of teeth. The pict sender image showed the bony remains of a gargantuan creature.
“Sergeant Mudmilk”, ordered Hawk, “take your squad and the pict sender up to that carcass.”
The Red Hunter Space Marines advanced in hostile territory formation. The pict sender showed the vastness of the space in which they were advancing.
The images on the screen swung from side to side with the advance but the image of the skull of the massive beast with teeth as tall as an erect Space Marine lingered in the vision of the watchers.
“Hammerhand started. “What is that in its mouth?”